Virginia was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and moved to Dayton, Ohio, in 2003 after her husband relocated for work. Together, they have two children and a bonus child. One has graduated in Aerospace Engineering; the middle child is beginning nursing school this spring; and the youngest will be graduating in Kinesiology from the University of Kentucky and will pursue a Master’s degree in Athletic Training at Ohio University. A litigation attorney by training, Virginia is licensed in New Jersey and Puerto Rico, though she no longer practices law. After arriving in Ohio, she devoted nearly two decades to serving her community in a wide range of roles—including conflict resolution, arbitration, scheduling management, culinary work, and school volunteering—bringing versatility, resilience, and a deep sense of service to everything she undertook. In April 2021, at the tail end of the COVID-19 pandemic, Virginia joined El Puente as Program Director at the encouragement of her longtime friend, Imelda. Under her leadership, El Puente transformed to meet the urgent and evolving needs of the Latino community during a time of great uncertainty. While continuing its after-school tutoring program, the organization expanded services to include food bank distribution, laptop lending, virtual tutoring, and emergency financial assistance for rent, utilities, and medical expenses. With support from local foundations, El Puente also distributed Kroger gift cards to families in need. Her leadership during the pandemic was recognized by President Biden in August 2021. Virginia wears many hats at El Puente—serving as grant writer, human resources lead, purchasing manager, and partnership developer—while managing daily operations and cultivating strategic collaborations that bring critical resources to the Latino community. One of the organization’s longest and most impactful partnerships is with Wright State University. Through a legacy relationship that began with former Board President Tony Ortiz, El Puente and WSU have built a strong, mutually beneficial collaboration. Faculty engagement at WSU has inspired students to serve as tutors and mentors for Hispanic children from underserved communities. The consistent support from the College of Health, Education, and Human Services has been instrumental to El Puente’s success. In her second year, Virginia established a partnership with Prevent Blindness, enabling El Puente to provide free vision screenings and eyeglasses to community members who otherwise would not have access to care. In April 2024, she was honored with the Community Partner in Vision Award in recognition of this impactful work. In 2022, Virginia led El Puente’s successful application for the Mental Health Navigator Grant in collaboration with the Ohio Commission on Latino Affairs. Despite operating with a small team of four part-time employees, she coordinated research on local mental health providers and gathered critical data on community needs. Building on this initiative, she now collaborates with the Wright State University Latino Club, the Latino Medical Student Association, and local Latino healthcare professionals to host Latino Wellness Clinics, offering free monthly medical services. On October 5, 2024, she received the Amiga del Pueblo Award from the Latino Center in recognition of her dedication to Dayton’s Hispanic community. In 2024, El Puente launched a partnership with Sinclair Community College’s Dental Hygiene School to provide free dental hygiene clinics to community members. As of October 2025, more than 250 individuals have received dental cleanings through this initiative. Virginia’s leadership is defined by creativity, determination, and advocacy. She consistently seeks innovative ways to expand services and is unafraid to ask difficult questions to ensure Latino families receive the quality support they deserve. On October 30, 2025, the Board of Directors recognized Virginia’s exceptional dedication and impact by promoting her to become El Puente’s first Executive Director.

Imelda was born in Chihuahua, MX. She came to the U.S. with her husband and two young daughters over 20 years ago. She is a nurse by training. She arrived in the city of Dayton and like many other immigrants, she faced all kinds of obstacles and frustrations ranging from language barriers, inability to continue working as a nurse, how to obtain certain goods and services, how to enroll her children in school, to financial independence. She missed having a community and little by little she started to know people and got involved as a volunteer at church, school and at the community center in the area. Around 2011 she was approached by Hermana Maria from the Ministerio Hispano to help with an afterschool program at a recently formed non-profit called El Puente. She worked with the parents to help them navigate the different aspects of a newly arrived person in Dayton. She provided information and resources to the families in regards to the educational system in the U.S., how to seek out different services and gave them tools on how to support their children to succeed academically. She became the bridge to connect the Latino population to services in Dayton as well as to many other resources. Currently she is the Parent Advocate and community Liaison for El Puente. In that capacity she works with the families of the children that attend the after-school tutoring program and works with the parents to teach them how to work together with the child and the school. In addition, she is connected with the Latino community and works diligently with Kroger's to obtain food donations. Last year we received a grant from OCHLA that challenged us to develop a Mental Health Navigator line. In order to do that, Imelda has had to keep track of the nature of the calls she receives and direct those to mental health services that have the capability to work with the Latino population. Imelda's position requires that she maintains good communication with adults, the children that attend our program and the community in general. She has earned the respect and trust of the community she serves. She is the heart of El Puente, she is the first point of contact that many newly arrived Latino immigrants will have and she will do her best to connect them with organizations that can meet their most pressing needs. She has set a high standard of service and dedication to the community that everyone that meets her can aspire to meet. In addition to her job at El Puente, she dedicates numerous hours as a volunteer at St. Mary's church. She coordinates the retreats for the Quinceaneras, other youth group engagements and has run a program called "El Milagro de la Mujer" where she teaches leadership and self-esteem techniques to women in the community. Further, she runs a folkloric dance group called "Orgullo Mexicano" sharing her Mexican culture and heritage with people who attend festivals around Ohio.

Teaching is my passion and I have been lucky enough to be doing it for more than 30 years. I was born and raised in the beautiful region of Michoacan, Mexico. I earned my teaching degree at Escuela Normal Motolinía (a Catholic university in Morelia, Michoacan) and have received additional training in the Montessori method of education, educational psychology, English as a second language, psycho-motor skills, and math for preschoolers. I’ve worked in both Catholic and public elementary schools in Mexico and the United States, and I’ve taught Spanish as a second language in the private sector. As the Academic Coordinator of El Puente, I collaborate with our students’ classroom teachers to find the best ways of improving each child’s areas of weakness while nurturing his or her strengths. My ultimate goal as an educator is to instill in every child a lifetime love of learning and the confidence to know that they can learn anything and be anything they want. On a personal note, my husband Rafael and I are blessed to have three grown children and five grandchildren. When not working or spending time with my family, I love being involved in the local community and have volunteered with local schools and the Catholic Hispanic Ministry of Dayton. I also enjoy hiking, swimming, arts and crafts, and of course reading.